Israeli forces foil Galilee terror plot

Israeli forces last month dismantled a terrorist squad that had detailed plans to carry out a combined shooting and bombing in the Galilee, the country’s security agencies revealed on Thursday.

The cell, which was led by a 23-year-old resident of the Arab town of Arraba in the Galilee and also included Palestinians from Judea and Samaria, was detained on Aug. 12, according to the Israel Police and Israel Security Agency.

Lead suspect Bassel Abahra planned to attack Jews coming to the Galilee to visit the graves of religious figures, according to the statement.

Police said Abahra enlisted the help of Palestinians who illegally infiltrated into the Jewish state from Judea and Samaria to assemble the bombs, and observed Jewish pilgrims ahead of the planned attack.

The suspect was also said to have recruited two minors to the terror cell.

During the arrests, Israeli forces seized communication equipment, a combat vest and materials for making explosives, the statement said.

Earlier this week, the Israel Police announced that it had arrested five Arab residents of Jerusalem’s Shuafat district, including the owner of a neighborhood supermarket chain, as part of a terror funding probe.

An initial investigation showed that the owner of the business, which has branches throughout the eastern part of Israel’s capital, had engaged in laundering terror funds and transferring them to Hamas, police said.

One-third of Israel’s 2.095 million Arab citizens believe that Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, is in line with Arab, Palestinian and Islamic values, according to a December 2023 poll.

In July, two Israeli citizens from the northern Arab village of A’ara were indicted on charges of trying to join Islamic State in Syria. Abdel Mahdi Gabarin and Naim Gabarin were arrested at the airport as they attempted to fly to Turkey, from where they planned to cross into Syria.

On June 17, the Israel Police revealed that security forces had arrested a resident of the Muslim village of ‘Ara, northeast of Hadera, on suspicion of preparing to join ISIS in Somalia. He was said to have made extensive preparations, including writing a will, collecting funds, applying for a foreign passport and maintaining contact with “hostile elements.”